GREEK MATHEMATICIANS
Historians
traditionally
place
the
beginning of Greek mathematics proper to the age
of Thales of Miletus (624 - 548 BC). Little is
known about the life and work of Thales, so little
indeed that his day of birth and death are
estimated from the eclipse of 585 BCE, which
probably occurred while he was in his prime.
Despite this, it is generally agreed that Thales is
the first of the seven wise men of Greece.
The Theorem of Thales, which states that an
angle inscribed in a semicircle is a right angle,
may have been learned by Thales while in
Babylon but tradition attributes to Thales a
demonstration of the theorem. It is for this reason
that Thales is often hailed as the father of the
deductive organization of mathematics and as the
first true mathematician. Thales is also thought to
be the earliest known man in history to whom
specific mathematical discoveries have been
attributed.
Another important figure in the
development of Greek mathematics is
Pythagoras of Samos (580 - 500 BC). Like
Thales, Pythagoras also traveled to Egypt and
Babylon, but settled in Croton. Pythagoras
established an order called the Pythagoreans,
which held knowledge and property in common
and hence all of the discoveries by individual
Pythagoreans were attributed to the order. He is
credited with the famous theorem for the rightangle triangle.